22 Nov 2017 Euroa Gazette, Euroa VIC (General News) by Will Murray YOUNG student leaders from Longwood, Nagambie and Euroa Primary schools, and two leaders from Euroa Secondary College were given the opportunity to visit Parliament House in Melbourne last week. The visit was organised by Nagambie Principal Rob French as part of an ongoing effort to unite the government schools from across the Shire of Strathbogie into a Strathbogie Cluster cooperative, which was formed a few years ago. The cluster also includes Avenel Primary and the Peranbin Primary Schools, which, due to a busy schedule, were unable to send their student leaders along on the day. Mr French said the trip was targeted at young student leaders at each of the schools involved, and was designed to show the future leaders how Victorias current representatives go about their work. It also gave the students, and their principals Rob French, Ross Davis from EPS and Travis Stefanos from Longwood Primary, the chance to meet, talk with, and ask questions of their local representatives. We met at Seymour to take the train to parliament, which was in itself a very exciting thing to do, Mr French said. We were met by Steph Ryan, who took us on a tour through the 166 year old Parliamentary Library, which the kids thought looked exactly like Hogwarts. We were joined by Luke OSullivan, and the two parliamentarians talked with the kids for over half an hour about what they thought about a number of issues, and really engaged them. They were so generous with their time, and the kids got really involved and asked some great questions before they were given the opportunity to see both Ms Ryan and Mr OSullivan in action during Question Time. Steph Ryan even managed to acknowledge the students during her question, which we all got a real thrill out of. She reminded the students that Question Time is a lot of theatre, and I had to remind the kids that if they behaved like some of the politicians in class, they would end up in the naughty corner! The students also met Labor Upper House representative for Northern Victoria, Jaclyn Symes, who also took time out of a very busy schedule to talk with them. Mr French said both the students and teachers appreciated how openly and honestly the politicians spoke to the students on some complex topics. These are young leaders, and people can often forget how capable young people are at tackling certain issues, he explained. The three pollies were very interested in what they had to say, and didnt talk down to them at all, which was great. Caption Text: FUTURE LEADERS: Steph Ryan (MLA, Euroa), Casey Hearmon, Rob French, Evie Stefanos (seated), Tiffany Bourke, Lexie Kleinig, Harry Palmer, Ben Shelton (seated), Luke OSullivan (MLC, Northern Victoria), (EPS Students and Ross Davis), Maggie Young (seated), Jane Fraser, Travis Stefanos and Matthew Capobianco in the Victorian Parliamentary Library. Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.